An edited collection exploring how Roman contemporaries thought about unrest.
Despite Roman claims to have brought peace, unrest was widespread in the Roman Empire. Revolts, protests, and piracy were common occurrences. How did contemporaries relate to and make sense of such phenomena?
This volume gathers eleven contributions by specialists in the various literatures and modes of thinking that flourished in the empire between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE, including Graeco-Roman historiography and philosophy, Jewish prophecy, Christian apology, and the writings of the Tannaitic rabbis, to investigate these questions. Each contribution analyzes the discourses by which the diverse authors of these texts understood instances of unrest. Together, the contributions expand our understanding of the varied politics that pervaded the Roman empire. They highlight the intellectual labor at every level of society that went to (re)making this imperial formation throughout its long history.
Despite Roman claims to have brought peace, unrest was widespread in the Roman Empire. Revolts, protests, and piracy were common occurrences. How did contemporaries relate to and make sense of such phenomena?
This volume gathers eleven contributions by specialists in the various literatures and modes of thinking that flourished in the empire between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE, including Graeco-Roman historiography and philosophy, Jewish prophecy, Christian apology, and the writings of the Tannaitic rabbis, to investigate these questions. Each contribution analyzes the discourses by which the diverse authors of these texts understood instances of unrest. Together, the contributions expand our understanding of the varied politics that pervaded the Roman empire. They highlight the intellectual labor at every level of society that went to (re)making this imperial formation throughout its long history.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1. Unrest in the Roman Empire: Discourse and Politics by Lisa Pilar Eberle and Myles Lavan 2. Tell Me How I Conquered You: Theorizing Accommodation and Unrest in the Book of Daniel by Dan-el Padilla Peralta 3. The Roman Language of Civil War: From Internal War and Stasis to Bellum Civile by Carsten Hjort Lange 4. Struggles to Define and Counter-Define Unrest in the Cities of the Early Roman East by Benjamin Gray 5. Josephus’s Multilayered Discourse on the Judean Revolt against Rome by Katell Berthelot 6. Narrating Mutiny: Towards a Discursive History of Military Unrest by Hans Kopp 7. Aporetic Unrest: Reimagining Materialism and Empire in Appian by Lisa Pilar Eberle 8. From War to Criminality: The Roman Discourse of Provincial Revolt by Myles Lavan 9. Usurpers, Bandits and Barbarians: Narratives of Provincial Unrest in the Fourth Century by Bruno Pottier 10. Towards a Discursive History of Christian Persecution by James Corke-Webster 11. Violent Histories: Women and Unrest from Roman to Late Roman Historiography by Ulriika Vihervalli 12. Roman War, Rabbinic Law, and Provincial Sovereigntism by Natalie B. Dohrmann Index Contributors
1. Unrest in the Roman Empire: Discourse and Politics by Lisa Pilar Eberle and Myles Lavan 2. Tell Me How I Conquered You: Theorizing Accommodation and Unrest in the Book of Daniel by Dan-el Padilla Peralta 3. The Roman Language of Civil War: From Internal War and Stasis to Bellum Civile by Carsten Hjort Lange 4. Struggles to Define and Counter-Define Unrest in the Cities of the Early Roman East by Benjamin Gray 5. Josephus’s Multilayered Discourse on the Judean Revolt against Rome by Katell Berthelot 6. Narrating Mutiny: Towards a Discursive History of Military Unrest by Hans Kopp 7. Aporetic Unrest: Reimagining Materialism and Empire in Appian by Lisa Pilar Eberle 8. From War to Criminality: The Roman Discourse of Provincial Revolt by Myles Lavan 9. Usurpers, Bandits and Barbarians: Narratives of Provincial Unrest in the Fourth Century by Bruno Pottier 10. Towards a Discursive History of Christian Persecution by James Corke-Webster 11. Violent Histories: Women and Unrest from Roman to Late Roman Historiography by Ulriika Vihervalli 12. Roman War, Rabbinic Law, and Provincial Sovereigntism by Natalie B. Dohrmann Index Contributors